Super Bowl XLVI…The Rematch
Posted by: melvinjim in: ● January 27, 2012
It’s a rematch four years in the making. On Sunday, Feb. 5, the AFC champion New England Patriots face the NFC champion New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI (46) in Indianapolis, and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will be looking to avenge his team’s loss at the hands of Eli Manning and his Giants that occurred in Super Bowl XLII (42). Everyone here at AppNeta is thrilled our home team has made it to the finals and we are ready to celebrate a victory
We are clearly big fans. Are you? You think you know football?? Predict the final score of Superbowl XLVI and win a fully loaded PathView Cloud subscription featuring:
- NEW m30 with path-based performance validation of up to 300 LAN paths and 80 WAN Paths
- NetFlow/traffic generation and analysis at 1Gbps with fail-to-wire technology
- 100% remote packet capture at 1Gbps
- Up to 50 concurrent calls for pre-deployment validation
- Web application performanceto & from any location
In the event that two people pick the exact same numbers then we will go to time of entry, the early bird will win so submit now!!
So here is our rundown on…The Rematch! Four years after New York stunned previously undefeated New England in the Arizona desert, the Patriots and Giants are going at it again in the Super Bowl. It’s the Patriots’ first appearance since Manning and the Giants upset New England’s pursuit of perfection in 2008. Back then, New England was a 12-point favorite, but New York’s defense battered Brady, sacking him 5 times, and Manning connected with Plaxico Burress on a late touchdown to win the Giants’ third Super Bowl.
That TD came, of course, a few moments after one of the biggest plays in playoff history: Manning escaped the grasp of a few Patriots defenders and found David Tyree, who put New York in scoring position by pinning the football against his helmet amongst a number of Patriot defenders for a jaw-dropping catch.
Similarities between the teams this time around and the teams four years ago have Patriots fans less confident than their other Super Bowl appearances. The Giants enter the Super Bowl playing their best football all season, which is how the Giants entered the playoffs four years ago, becoming the first wild card team to win the Super Bowl in NFL history. They also have a highly touted defense that boasts three of the top pass rushers in the game which was their strength in the 2007-2008 season. The Patriots, once again had one of the top offenses in the league this year, but a subpar defense that ranked second-to-last in the league during the regular season led to plenty of shootouts, and Brady was more than up to the task, throwing for a career-high 5,235 yards while tossing 39 touchdown passes, 33 of which were to Brady’s favorite targets, Tight Ends Rob Gronkowski (17) and Aaron Hernandez (7) and wide receiver Wes Welker (9).
New England, which lost to New York 24-20 in early November, is a 3-point favorite for the Feb. 5 game. The Patriots have won 10 straight, with their last loss being to – you guessed it – the Giants. So, once again, it will be Brady vs. Manning, coaches Bill Belichick vs. Tom Coughlin and the Patriots vs. the Giants.
Tune in next week for an update on which team is in the lead in the AppNeta Superbowl contest.
CEO Notes…New Year, New Office, New Company!
Posted by: melvinjim in: ● January 23, 2012
The last four weeks have been a blur! Between wrapping up our third quarter, the holidays, and, oh-yes, moving the company to downtown Boston, it has been a whirlwind.
In real estate, they say that location is everything. Well, I am starting to think the same might be true for starting a business. For the past 3 years, AppNeta has been located in a quiet office building in Wellesley Hills, MA. The space was certainly suitable to meet our needs, and if you wanted a good seat to see the Boston Marathon go by, then this was the place.
But we wanted to attract young sales talent and, well, they generally don’t live in the Weston/Wellesley area codes. So, as our lease was coming up at year end, the decision was made to move and to make it a big move –into downtown Boston.
What a difference a move makes! We tripled our space in a high timber-ceiling building with tons of windows and light…all this means ENERGY. Despite the fact that we are only consuming a small fraction, the energy level of the entire company has gone up tremendously. I feel that the move was the perfect ending to the transition out of Apparent Networks and is an exclamation point on the launch of AppNeta.
We launched the AppNeta service 2 years ago and, in a short time, we have put a big dent in the world of remote site application and network performance management. The deployment of PathView appliances went from ZERO to SEVERAL THOUSAND in just under 2 years, as our business grew nearly 400% over the past year. Of course the best part is still to come. We have made great progress on our vision to change the game in IT and performance management with our cloud-based service and our hyper-agile development team in Vancouver continues to rock and deliver feature updates to our cloud-based service on a monthly basis (!). In a very short time, we went from a single, yet compelling feature (L3 path performance analysis), to a full fault and performance management suite including netflow generation and analysis, packet capture and analysis, and even application performance analysis for VoIP, Video and Web applications. All simple to deploy and affordable, thanks in large part to the cloud.
And the best part of the story is the part that hasn’t been written yet…AppNeta is changing everything. Stay tuned.
-JimM
Flow Analysis: See Detailed Remote Site Network Usage, Without Breaking the Bank!
Posted by: armstrongsean in: ● January 18, 2012
Before business productivity became dependent on the Internet, smaller companies didn’t spend money on flow data analysis. Even enterprise companies didn’t invest in expensive network hardware capable of delivering flow information at the scattered remote offices. It was never a concern until the Internet became a business and personal life line – and pipeline – regardless of location size. Personal devices such as smartphones, tablets, etc. can consume as much bandwidth as laptop.
IT staff are employed to ensure business data reaches the desired mark. With employees doubling up on bandwidth, network engineers must battle the negative results like slow networks, dropped calls, application failures, transfer/back up failures, unhappy users and potential job loss. All this because Skippy the intern was streaming Netflix on his iPad, sending emails from his smartphone and running Spotify on his laptop. All companies, regardless of size, need to monitor network traffic and usage.
So, here’s the problem. Flow enabled routers are expensive, especially for a small location. Also, companies don’t always have a dedicated IT support staff at the remote sites. Current flow tools require expensive software, server installation, a device capable of generating flow data and manual re-configuration of network devices. Without a dedicated engineer on site with flow expertise, a flow implementation can be a futile effort.
Luckily, AppNeta has filled this gap. The new enhanced flow capabilities require ZERO configuration and installation and NO expensive flow enabled devices. The new charts (non-tech user friendly) and intuitive drilled down visibility shows who is doing what on your network – including who is using which applications, visiting a which websites and other end-user activity to and from a host computer.
AppNeta’s flow capabilities are enabled by a cloud service, just plug our microAppliance into your network (fail-open built in) and see real time data within minutes, eliminating the need for in depth expertise. IT teams can remotely monitor the network usage of remote sites from their office laptops, or even from mobile devices since the updates made are in HTML5.
To walk through the new flow updates to PathView Cloud, watch the recorded webinar, or to see FlowView functioning in real-time on a livenetwork, click through the 24/7 live network monitoring demonstration.
The Network Engineer’s Cheat Sheet for 2012
Posted by: kathleenisobel in: ● January 11, 2012
2011 could be considered the year that network performance management “came of age.” In this past year, IT and network managers in organizations of all sizes and industry segments have become aware — if they weren’t already — that the performance of the network is the foundation of user experience and business success.
Why was 2011 such a pivotal year in this space? Suddenly so much data, from so many more applications and devices, is now transmitted across IP-based networks. From VoIP to cloud-based services, to virtual desktops, to video conferencing to personal mobile devices, IP-based networks are rapidly becoming bigger, more complex and more important than ever.
With traffic levels skyrocketing and no end in sight, we’ve put together four “can’t miss” trends that folks tasked with managing network performance should keep on the backs of their hands in the New Year.
1) Cloud Application Performance = Network Performance.
The growth of cloud-based services like hosted e-mail, online backup/recovery and SaaS applications from Salesforce.com to SAP ERP bring new network performance challenges. Jumping into cloud deployments can be painful if your network isn’t ready, or if you’re not ready to manage it.
Any business service accessed over cloud infrastructure becomes a remote service and is network-dependent. Every user of cloud services is a remote user, wholly reliant on the network for his or her experience of cloud services. Cloud-based apps will falter, freeze and disconnect users when network performance sinks below tolerable thresholds.
In 2012, network professionals and IT/application service providers will increasingly leverage network performance management tools and services to support successful cloud services deployments and to guarantee application service levels for users.
2) It’s not just about bandwidth.
It used to be that managing network performance just meant adding bandwidth when response times started getting slow. But there are other vital factors – especially when it comes to ensuring or improving application SLAs. These include:
- Packet loss
- Jitter
- Latency or delay
- Packet loss and retransmissions
- Bandwidth in relation to network traffic
- Network configuration and changes thereto
In 2012, network professionals will increasingly turn to network performance management tools and services to enable them to measure these KPIs as a means of monitoring network health over time, pinpointing problems, assessing readiness for the deployment of new services, and other critical concerns.
2) It’s what you know, not how much.
Network professionals are recognizing that network management takes more than just data – the data needs to be actionable! Your network performance management solution – not your IT staff – should be charged with collating thousands of data elements into clear results you can use to understand user experience, quickly address problems, and proactively manage the network.
In 2012, more and more organizations will choose a network monitoring or network management solution based on time-to-value and the quality of its dashboard. It’s vital to go from problem identification to problem resolution with a few mouse clicks. Likewise, IT organizations increasingly need tools that are easy and cost-efficient to deploy and manage.
3) Don’t let your users be the first to spot a problem.
Because of their growing reliance on IP-based applications to do their jobs, users — and senior management — have higher expectations than ever before for network performance. Thus it’s more important than ever to be able to identify network problems before they impact users. By the time users start calling the Help Desk, in many respects IT has already failed.
Being proactive takes real-time data on a wide range of network KPIs. In 2012, a growing number of IT departments will implement proactive approaches to network monitoring and management.
4) Streaming media is a monster that must be tamed.
The mobile and streaming media explosions are having a major impact on network performance in nearly every organization. There’s a lot of corporate bandwidth being sucked up by video and music downloads these days! Add a few YouTube viewings, throw in some CNN video content, plus a couple of Skype online video conference calls, and even a robust network can feel the pain.
Knowing who is using what bandwidth on your network is helpful for troubleshooting performance issues like sluggish application performance. If your business is maxing out its available Internet bandwidth, especially at peak times, the result can be crashing cloud applications, dropped VoIP calls and lost business productivity.
Try PathView Cloud for free to and make sure your network is ready for the excitement of the 2012!
Show Me the Bandwidth
Posted by: kathleenisobel in: ● January 6, 2012
Security is a well-known risk with cloud applications, but…what about bandwidth? More and more businesses are looking to cut costs and improve end customer experience by moving customer-facing applications, storage/backup solutions, and many other applications to distributed data centers in the cloud.
If users experience performance or latency problems due to insufficient network bandwidth, such as slow, stalling or failed applications, the ride to the cloud could get bumpy in a hurry.
In the simplest terms, bandwidth is a way to talk about the capacity or data rate of a network connection. In theory, the greater the bandwidth, the higher the probability of acceptable application performance. Many IT organizations throw more bandwidth at the problem, and have learned the hard way, that this does not resolve serious performance issues. This approach usually just wastes money and does little to address the root cause of poor performance (inefficient network topology, application architectures that aren’t cloud-friendly, too many employees streaming audio at work, etc.).
Factors like latency and packet loss also come into play – especially in the real world where available bandwidth is usually more relevant than theoretical maximum bandwidth.
The available bandwidth along a network path is critically important for cloud application performance. Available bandwidth is the capacity that a new application can use without impacting the transmission of other flows on that path.
So when it comes to cloud applications, available bandwidth isn’t just any old bandwidth – it’s “clean capacity” with minimal packet loss, jitter and latency. And since applications use bandwidth differently, the amount and quality of available bandwidth must be ensured for each application. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or video conferencing applications are much more sensitive to bandwidth availability and quality than cloud-based backup systems are likely to be, for instance.
A recent Computerworld article Bandwidth Bottlenecks Loom Large in the Cloud discussed how IT hasn’t considered all the implications of bandwidth challenges. For example, only 54% of surveyed IT professionals who are using some form of cloud services report that they currently involve network engineering/operations staff in the process; down from 62% in 2009.
Traditional network best practices may be left by the wayside as well. In particular, the health of overall network traffic delivery may be quietly fading away, until poor cloud application performance unmasks the symptoms.
What is required is insight into utilized versus available versus potential network capacity. This level of awareness is particularly challenging to gain when public networks are involved, due to the dynamic, “bursty” nature of Internet traffic. Cloud application performance can degrade due to normal peak hour congestion, for instance. Proactive and continuous bandwidth monitoring is required to ensure application delivery and compliance with service levels.
Network managers need to monitor not only capacity and utilization, but also packet loss, latency and jitter, route changes and other real-time key performance indicators.
SNMP instrumentation can only provide part of the data you need to guarantee cloud application performance. Besides requiring devices to be owned and configured, SNMP tools can’t offer real-time bandwidth data and other KPIs to illustrate the end-to-end performance of cloud applications from the standpoint of remote sites.
Do you know your network’s available bandwidth?? How do you continuously monitor this? Check out a new free tool called PathTest, the most accurate bandwidth capacity test available. Even with an understanding of your bandwidth measurements today, it is critical to continuously and accurately monitor your network’s total (achievable) and available capacity and performance without flooding the network with traffic that can itself degrade application performance? Sign up for a free trial of PathView Cloud and get insight you simply don’t have today.
Simplicity: Network Performance Prediction #1
Posted by: kathleenisobel in: ● December 30, 2011
The Number 1 prediction for 2012 is…Simplicity – Simplicity – Simplicity. Network performance management tools can be more complicated than the networks they run on. Unused, unmanaged or complex network solutions do not offer value to an organization.
Questions Network Engineers Should Never Have to Ask About Their NPM tools:
- Is it running?
- Is the version up to date?
- Do I have it deployed in the right place?
- Are the right options turned on to get the data I need?
There shouldn’t be concerns about the OS, hardware, disc space or patch level. The fact is that the on-demand, easy to use, software as a service model is ideal for most organizations.
Next year promises to be a ground breaking era for network performance. Read the rest of Matt Steven’s predictions and let us know what you think!
Mixing Business and IT: Network Performance Prediction #2
Posted by: kathleenisobel in: ● December 29, 2011
The countdown to 2012 continues with Network Performance Management Prediction #2 – Mixing Business and IT! Productivity is dependent on a functioning network. If the phones are down, then so is business. Therefore, network performance solutions must provide actionable and easily understood information that can be interpreted by more than network engineers. Of course, there will be data that requires network knowledge in order to take action, but that will be the exception vs. the norm.
The solutions need to provide the context required by application, server/virtualization, storage, security and telephony teams. Web-based UIs, exception-based alerting to 3rd party systems, historical trending through on demand or scheduled reports or web-service based API’s for integrations into other upstream systems can all allow individuals to receive information in a way that does not interrupt work-flow.
Do you see this happening in your business? This prediction comes from Matt Stevens, AppNeta CTO, who wrote an article on the top 10 Network Performance Management Predictions for 2012 . Read the rest of Matt Steven’s predictions and let us know what you think!
Bad Bandwidth: Network Performance Prediction #3
Posted by: kathleenisobel in: ● December 28, 2011
We’re counting down to 2012 with Network Performance Predictions! Inspired by an article by Matt Stevens, AppNeta CTO, we have pulled together three insights that will impact network performance management next year.
So, prediction #3 is… Bad Bandwidth. Cheap bandwidth is great and getting cheaper all the time. However, an increase in the bandwidth does not necessarily correspond with an increase in bandwidth quality. Capacity and quality (or “clean capacity) is required to support today’s applications. Proactive and continuous monitoring of bandwidth is required to ensure applications are delivered. Since applications use bandwidth differently, the amount and quality of bandwidth for each must be ensured.
For example, cloud-based backup may require fat-pipes and can tolerate a bit of loss. Video-conferencing with advanced codecs requires clean bandwidth for a high definition experience. If these are running at the same locations, you of course need to compensate for both.
Next year promises to be a ground breaking era for network performance. Read the rest of Matt Steven’s predictions and let us know what you think!
Iperf and PathTest: An Engineer’s Experiment
Posted by: gzammuto in: ● December 27, 2011
Conventional wisdom says that you can only see the true capacity of your network by flooding the pipe. Well, we already put a stop to that thinking (see PathView Cloud). However, we still understand that it is an effective method, if done right.
With PathTest, the latest free tool from AppNeta, we can flood your network with any kind of traffic you like. This can be done via TCP, UDP, or ICMP. We have covered all of the bases. You want to monitor the throughput of your network? Great, use PathTest. You want to monitor the throughput of an app (TCP or UDP Based). Great, use PathTest.
Once installed on a Windows or Linux system, PathTest is a simple command utility which is highly configurable. You can configure anything from protocol (TCP,UDP, ICMP) to port number, even QoS (!!!) settings. Additionally, you can specify the bandwidth you wish to test or just let it flood the pipe to its maximum possible capacity (warning – don’t do this on networks with production traffic – people will yell at you).
All of these configurations sound familiar to another command line utility, don’t they? What’s that called? Just kidding, I think all network engineers have used it.
Iperf is a well known tool for network flooding. One thing to keep in mind though is that Iperf’s base mode (and most effective) is TCP. In theory, this does not have any issues. However, a limitation is how “fast” Iperf can emit packets. Iperf is also extremely dependent on the processing power of the CPU/RAM as well as the back end algorithms of the command. This is evident in the monitoring of a GigE path from a Dell latitude laptop to another, both of which have Gigabit NICs. These were connected via a single Cat5e cable – no switch or any other network gear between the laptops. The throughput reported from Iperf was about 265Mbps in either direction.
This made me wonder “Is this accurate?” This is a perfect test case for our new PathTest tool. I compared the results against Iperf on the same exact hardware, operating system and network.
PathTest is designed to emit multiple packets with nanosecond precision, enabling a very high degree of accuracy while also requiring very low CPU usage (the latter a known issue with Iperf when testing on GigE-class networks). With PathTest, a Dell Latitude laptop showed a slightly different result – about 922Mbps to be precise.
For sure, 600Mbps a drastic difference – which one is telling the real story?
Luckily, AppNeta also offers a non evasive, light-weight monitoring tool for such discrepancies. The PathView component of the PathView Cloud suite is designed to see the actual layer 3 and/or layer 4 throughput between an IP-based source and destination pair. When run on the same exact network as the flooding tools, PathView Cloud reported a capacity of about 920Mbps – identical to the PathTest results.
In conclusion, we had two different techniques report well over 900Mbps of throughput on a GigE network and a single tool reporting 300Mbps. The test scenarios were identical (see command line screen shot above).
Merry Flooding and Happy Holidays!
Top 5 Ways to Impress Your Boss with Remote Network Performance Management!
Posted by: kathleenisobel in: ● December 16, 2011
- Improve Reliability
A reliable network means peace of mind and happy end users. The ability to remotely monitor and troubleshoot all business critical applications from one interface will allow you to pinpoint issues before the end users pick up the phone to complain, or submit support tickets. Remotely diagnose and remediate issues without disrupting business operations and reduce incoming issues at the same time!
- Know your available bandwidth and reduce costs
Show your boss where the money is going! You need to be sure that you are getting exactly the amount of bandwidth your company is paying for. The only way to do this is with insight into your utilized and available bandwidth capacity. Too often the response to a network performance issue is to purchase more bandwidth. This wastes your precious budget and does not remediate the root cause of the issue. Present your boss with a graph of the available, achievable and utilized levels of bandwidth to either validate a service or support a suggestion for change. Then, go one step further and show your carrier the report and make you get what you believe you’re paying for!
- Ease of Expansion
As your business grows, show you can keep up. When the company brings on new employees, new sites and applications you should always pre-assess your network capacity prior to increasing the demand on the network. Assess and then continuously monitor the new users or applications to proactively assure a successful roll out or increased usage.
- Stay on the Cutting Edge
All competitive companies want the latest and greatest technology. And they wanted it yesterday. Technology is changing everyday and the complexity of network performance is increasing all the time, which can be overwhelming for day-to-day management. IT performance and business operation performance are one blurred line. Tell your boss with confidence that you can handle “The Cloud.” Stand out from competitors by leading the charge by preparing your network for new cloud-based services and assuring performance of these applications.
- Have evidence
Eliminate a finger pointing game with your carriers, who will of course deny performance issues with their service. Find where the issue is occurring in their network, run a report and send it over to the provider ( I suggest CCing your boss : ) ) to prove that you know where the issues are happening and demand they are resolved.
See how PathView Cloud gives you these capabilities and more in our live demonstration!
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